General Anders’ Army

The formation of the Polish community in UK was the result of population displacements, brought about by World War II. The war itself started in Poland in September 1939, with a co-ordinated attack by the armies of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. In Soviet-occupied eastern Poland, the Soviets almost immediately embarked on a policy of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Prisoners of War were massacred at Katyn Forest, and nearly 2 million civilians were deported to Siberia and Kazachstan. Within 18 months half the deportees were dead. The German invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1941 forced the Soviets to seek Western assistance, and resulted in the release of all surviving Polish detainees. 114,000 joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West, commanded in the Soviet Union by General Wladyslaw Anders, whose great historical achievement was to evacuate his army and its civilian dependants to safety in Iran. They then fought alongside the British in the Middle East and were victorious at the battle of Monte Cassino in Italy, where they remained for some time after the war, unable to return to Soviet-occupied Poland.

Gen Wladyslaw Anders, Commander of Polish Forces in the West

Soviet authorisation to leave prison and travel within the USSR